In the grand scheme of things, Los Angles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick is a star and perhaps the future of Team USA goaltending. Even the best netminders look silly sometimes, though, and that was the case when a dominant first period for the Kings was largely washed away when Phoenix Coyotes defenseman Derek Morris beat Quick from center ice:

You might say that Quick joins Chris Osgood, Tommy Salo, Dan Cloutier and other netminders known for allowing goals from far out, but he already did last year. St. Louis Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo scored a similar goal against Quick on March 17, 2011.

Hey, at least it humanizes a goalie who can sometimes look superhuman, right?

On a night when the Penguins-Maple Leafs and Rangers-Sabres games produced one regulation goal combined,* Michal Neuvirth’s rough goal stands out that much more. Much like Dennis Seidenberg, Mikael Samuelsson gets to pad his stats with this long-distance tally:

The Florida Panthers went on to beat the Washington Capitals 4-2 in a fairly important game, as this places the banged-up Rats one point ahead of wounded Washington for the Southeast Division lead. The regulation loss hurts the Caps even more because they’ve been knocked out of the East’s top eight for the time being.

Obviously that goal doesn’t tell the whole story – Neuvirth helped Washington stay in the game by making 34 out of 37 saves – but it did stake Florida to a valuable 1-0 lead. It also might be the kind of clip that people lean on if the Panthers win the division and the Capitals find themselves out of the playoffs altogether once April rolls around …

* – More on those games later, but Toronto got revenge on Pittsburgh with a 1-0 win while Henrik Lundqvist’s shutout was better than Ryan Miller’s as New York earned a 1-0 shootout win against Buffalo.

Generally speaking, there are three categories of events that people actually remember from mostly irrelevant preseason games.

1. Something terrible happens to a player, causing a lengthy injury. Obviously, these still “count” even if the games don’t.

2. A player accomplishes an astounding feat, like a highlight reel goal or a breathtaking save. One can widen this category to generally include players who have an over-their-head or beyond-expectations preseason. (Sergei Bobrovsky could be a good example of that in last year’s exhibition period.)

3. Someone gets humiliated by an especially bad gaffe.

While there were likely instances of situation two in last night’s action – some might even say that Edmonton Oilers defenseman Taylor Fedun was climbing up the team’s charts with an “eye opening” training camp – my guess is that number 1 and 3 were in play on Friday night.

We’ve already discussed the first one last night, as a horrible accident happened between Minnesota Wild player Eric Nystrom and Fedun. Here’s video of the unfortunate incident.

From that very limited angle, it’s hard for me to accuse Nystrom of malice. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, though; does he deserve a long suspension for it? One respected outlet thinks the answer is an emphatic “Yes.” Here’s an excerpt from Derek Zona of Copper & Blue’s take.

In Mitchell’s case he had a clear path to the puck and Foster veered in front of him putting Mitchell in a precarious position. Mitchell’s instincts caused him to take the worst possible tack – he shoved Foster in the back and into the boards. It was a penalty, but it was also a sequence that occurred in a bang-bang fashion.

In Fedun’s case, he was in front of Nystrom the entire time and Nystrom made what looked to me like a premeditated attempt to board Fedun. Every hockey player knows the end result of that play, Nystrom chose to ignore it. The debate on no-touch icing is already under way, though I don’t believe this play should be used as evidence for either side of the debate. This should, however, further the debate on dirty play, suspensions and eliminating this kind of play and these types of players from hockey.

Again, my instinct is to say it was terrible mistake since Nystrom seemingly tried to play the puck, but there are many ways to look at that. Let us know how you feel.

***

Moving on to number 3, here’s a bit of comic relief – unless your name is Ray Emery. Matt Cooke took advantage of Emery, who was way out of his crease playing a puck that landed perfectly to him. Cooke quickly sent a shot that went past Emery and beat Brent Seabrook five-hole. (They just don’t teach defenseman a solid butterfly technique, do they?)

Yup, that’s gonna smart. Seabrook almost bailed Emery out, but it was not to be.